The present invention relates to a portable receptacle for transporting and dispensing a quantity of sand. It is not unusual during a round of golf, especially when hitting with an iron, to "take" a divot when striking the golf ball. As known in the art, a divot is a piece of turf gouged out with a golf club in making a stroke. Some golf courses, particularly at par three holes, where an iron is typically used, will place a fixed receptacle containing sand, with a hand scoop, to be used by the golfer to fill in the divot after hitting the ball. It is virtually impossible to place such receptacles at convenient positions along the fairway. As a consequence, divots in the fairway are not repaired and can become an inconvenience to golfers who follow. If ones golf ball settles into a fairway divot, it can be difficult to make a clean and accurate shot. This invention is intended to provide a golfer with a convenient tool to make divot repairs at any place on the golf course, and thereby make the game and the course more pleasant for other golfers.
A review of the prior art revealed no similar or related device to make divot repairs by the use of a portable device that may be carried by the golfer during his/her round of golf. However, the prior art does reveal portable devices that may be carried by an individual, as reflected by the following U.S. Pat. Nos.
a.) No. 5,484,128, to Franco, Sr., teaches a beverage retaining apparatus for attachment to a golf cart. The apparatus includes a beverage retaining vessel having a vessel wall, a bracket for fitting around the part, the bracket including a part encompassing member having an inner member surface and sized so that the inner member surface is larger than and spaced apart from the part outer surface. Further, included is a deformable gripping material for filling the space between the inner member surface and the part outer surface and for deforming to fit the certain shape and size of the part outer surface, and an interconnection structure for connecting the vessel to the bracket. The encompassing member preferably includes a strap member having two strap ends and being longitudinally bent end to end to form a loop configuration for encompassing the part outer surface. The interconnection structure preferably removably connects the vessel to the bracket. The interconnection structure preferably includes a channel recessed into the vessel wall having a channel open end, and a projection extending from the encompassing member and sized for sliding axial insertion into the channel through the channel open end, where the channel laterally surrounds the projection to a sufficient extent for the channel to retain the projection against lateral removal of the projection from the channel. PA1 b.) No. 5,105,958, to Patton, relates to a water bottle and support assembly for a golf bag, and includes a retainer bracket, a hanger strap and retaining belt for mounting the retainer bracket on the golf bag, and a water bottle supported by the bracket. The retainer bracket has a front surface provided with a vertically extending dovetail groove, and the water bottle has a corresponding dovetail tongue thereon sized to fit within the groove, so that the bottle can be easily and quickly installed or removed. PA1 c.) No. 4,428,508, to Gardikas et al., is directed to an elongated container for drinking water to be used by athletes where the container is formed from a resilient laterally deformable polymerized resin. The container has a wide mouth neck that has first coarse threads on the exterior thereof that are threadably and frictionally engaged by second coarse threads on the interior of the combined closure and drinking water dispensing assembly. The assembly has a water dispensing tube projecting outwardly therefrom through which a jet of drinking water is discharged when the container is squeezed by an athlete. The assembly rotatably supports an inverted cup shaped guard, which guard is free to rotate thereon. Visual insignia are provided on the guard to axially align first and second pairs of openings in the closure and guard to permit an elongate rigid member to be extended therethrough, and used to twist the closure assembly into binding frictional engagement with the neck. The elongate member when removed from the openings allows the guard to rotate freely on the closure. Rotation of the guard by an athlete will have no effect on loosening the combined closure and water dispensing assembly from the container to allow the athletes to drink directly from the neck of the container which is unsanitary.
While these prior art devices offer aids to golfers and other athletes, such as a device for carrying water, none present a device for containing and dispensing sand on a divot mark on the golf course. The manner by which the present invention achieves these goals will become more apparent in the description to follow.